ED raids 13 places, including houses of 2 ministers

KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted raids at 13 places, including the houses of former Education minister Partha Chattarjee and Minister of State (MoS) for Education Paresh Adhikari, in connection to the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam.

ED officials also raided the houses of former West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) chairman Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Manik Bhattacharya and former School Service Commission (SSC) advisory committee chief Shanti Prasad Sinha.

On Friday at around 6 am, ED officials accompanied by the CRPF personnel reached 13 places, including Chatterjee's house in Naktala.

Sources informed that the preparation of the raids had started late on Thursday night. One team had left for Mekhligunj in Cooch Behar from the CGO Complex in Salt Lake to reach Adhikari's house.

The other teams left CGO Complex early on Friday morning and started the raids around the same time.

Though lawyers of Chatterjee reached there in the afternoon, they were not allowed by the ED officials.

Meanwhile, Chatterjee fell sick and a doctor was brought in for his treatment.

In the evening, ED officials recovered around Rs 20 crore cash from the house of a woman, identified as Arpita Mukherjee, in South 24-Parganas.

Mukherjee reportedly is close to the former Education minister.

Till reports last came in, the ED officials had left Adhikari's house at around 4 pm. However, the raids in other locations are still continuing.